Means for effecting transfer of knitted fabric portions in fullfashioned knitting machines



Mal-ch19, 1935. M. E. MAGNIER 1,995,279

MEANS FOR EFFECTING TRANSFER'OF KNITTED FABRIC PORTIONS IN FULLFASHIONED KNITTING MACHINES Filed Feb. 9, 1952 2 Sheets-Sheet l 9 G O Q9 Q Q Q Q 0 6 6 w y M W March 19, 1935. v E, MAGNlER 1,995,279

' MEANS FOR EFFECTING TRANSFER OF KNITTED FABRIC PORTIONS IN FULLFASHIONED KNITTING MACHINES Filed Feb. 9, 1952 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Iave-Win2 Mar na's E. Ma gnwz;

Patented Mar. 19, 1935 MEANS FOR EFFECTING TRANSFER or KNITTED FABRICPORTIONS IN FULL- FASHIONED KNITTING MACHINES Morris E. Magnier,Phoenixville, Pa., assignor to Ajax Hosiery Mills, Phoenixville, Pa, acorporation of Pennsylvania Application February 9, 1932, Serial No.591,769 Claims. ((31. 66-148) This invention relates to means foreffecting the transfer of knitted fabric portions particularly in fullfashioned machines.

In order that the principle of the invention may 5 be readilyunderstood, I have disclosed in the accompanying drawings the preferredform of means for practising the invention and shall describe the bestmethod known to me for effecting the same.

In the drawings:

Fig. 1 is a'front only of elevation of a section or part a. fullfashioned knitting machine of known type having the mechanism forcarrying out by invention applied thereto;

Fig.2 is a vertical transverse section of parts of the knitting machineand showing, in full lines in operative position and in dotted lines ininactive position, one form of means by which my invention may Fig. 3 isa plan view be practised; and

part of a full fashioned stocking, being in the present instance the topwelt of the stocking,

, and the part immediately succeeding the same,

both provided with a lace formation.

It has heretofore been customary to knit the upper portion of a fullfashioned stocking, or less than the entire full fashioned stocking,upon one full fashioned machine, and then to transfer the same toanother action as heretofore practised machine, which transferring Iwill describe at length before proceeding to describe the improvementprovided by my invention.

The reasons for transferring the upper portion of a full fashionedstocking, or less than the entire full fashioned stocking, to anotherfull fashioned machine areseveral. machine upon which the Frequently theupper-part of the stocking is knitted is not provided with mechanism bywhich the fashioning operation may be carried out in the calf and whichthe upper part of the ankle; or the machine upon stocking is knitted maybe provided with means for effecting the formation of lace in the weltandin the part immediately below the welt, as fully described in thepatent to Harry W. Hoffm'ann,

1,828,533, dated October 20, 1931, and such machine may not be adaptedto complete the knitting of the remainder of the stocking. Also it iscustomary, when the completed with Stocking leg or leg of the stockinghas been the heel portions, to transfer said blank to a footer, or thetransfer may be desirable for other reasons. 1

Referring to the transfer operation, for any purpose, so far as the samehas heretofore been practised, the stocking was knitted upon a full of aportion of the upper fashioned machine down to a point'below the welt orto such other point as it may. have been desired to carry or continuethe knitting on the said first full fashioned machine, then a loosecourse was knitted and then an additional number of courses wereknitted, giving about onehalf inch in length of additional fabric, sothat the person who made the transfer could have an edge fabric portionto hold between the thumbs and fingers while making the transfer.

When the knitting was continued that far, the incomplete stocking orblank was taken off the machine; assuming there were eighteen to twentysections on the machine, the blanks from all said setcions were-takenoff at this point. The 15 said blanks so taken off were ca ed to atable, where there was provided a supporting frame in which waspermanently mounted ona backward slant a bar having a number of pointsequalling the number of needles in a section or head of 20v the saidfirst knitting machine and with the same gauge, etc. A special operativetook in turn each of said blanks and (holding, the extra lower edgefabric portion between the thumb and first finger of, say, the left handand an adja- 25 cent part of the fabric atthe other side of the loosecourse between the thumb and first finger of say, the right hand) theloops of. the said loosecourse were impaled upon the points of thatstationarily mounted bar. 5 1 Having done this for one blank, the sameoperative at once retransferred the said stitches from that stationarilymounted bar onto a like bar not mounted in a fixed support, but adaptedto be carired over to the next knitting machine. The 35 operative thenrepeated this entire operation with all the blanks taken from the saidfirst knitting machine, thus providing, say, eighteen to twenty blanks,each one of which he so impaled upon the points of a separate bar.attached piecesof fabric were then taken to the second knitting machineequipped to knit legs or equipped to complete the knitting of thestocking, and the operative transferred each piece of fabric onto onesection or head of needles of 45 the said second knitting machine. Hethen raveled back the additional one-half inch of extra "fabric of eachfabric blank'to the described loose 'for effecting the describedtransferring operations Said bars with their 4 was costly, the costamounting to twenty-five cents per dozen pair of stockings, or more.

By my invention a marked saving in time, convenience and material iseffected. I will first describe or refer to so much of a full fashionedmachine as is necessary or desirable in order to have the knittingoperation understood.

In Figs. 1 and 2, the needle bar or support is represented at 1, theneedles at 2, the knockingover hits at 3, and the sinkers at 4. Theupper knife rod or bar is indicated. at 5, the narrowing rods at 6, thenarrowing transfer points at 7, 8 and the picot rod at 9. Such parts,being of usual construction, need not'be more fully described.

Preferably upon one of the knife rods, as, for example, upon the upperknife rod 5, I removably secure two brackets 10, 10, shown' most clearlyand upon a larger scale in Fig. 2. If desired and as there shown, eachbracket is provided with a divided collar 11, 11 secured together bybolts 12, 12. The bracket has a depending portion 13 of substantiallyright angular construction, and secured thereto, as by screws 14, isanother bracket member 15 of right angular shape, each such bracketmember having a stud 16 held in an opening therein, as by means of a nut17. The head or end 18 of the said stud extends through the bracketmember 15 and is adapted-to enter an opening 19 in one end portion orother suitable part of a transfer bar 20.

The said transfer bar 20 is thus supported at its opposite ends upon thestuds of the said brackets 10, and any suitable means may be provided toconfine or retain the said transfer bar 20 in position upon the saidbrackets 10 until the transfer of the portion of the knitted fabricblank or portion is effected to the points 21 of the said transfer bar20. For the purpose, I may provide spring clips or spring plates 22mounted upon pivots or pins 23 so that they may be swung from over thesaid studs 18 to permit theremoval of the transfer bar 20, or may beswung so as to overlie the said studs 18. It will be understood that thesaid. brackets 10 may be readily swung up by hand or otherwise intoinactive position, as indicated in dotted lines in Fig. 2.

Each bar 20 has a number of transfer points 21 equalling the number ofneedles in the corresponding head or section of the knitting machine,and with the same spacing of transfer points as for the needles. It willbe understood that the knife bar or other part upon which the saidbrackets are supported participates in the dipping movement.

With a machine equipped as thus described, the knitting of the stockingis begun as usual, as, for example at the commencement of the welt, andthe welt portion 24 (shown in Fig. 3) is knitted, said welt being closedin the usual manner at a line or course indicated at 25. During theknitting of the outer wall of the welt, I prefer to effect, by lateraltransfer movement of stitches to the right or left, a lace formationcharacteristic of the said Hoffmann Patent No. 1,828,533, and asindicated at 26, 27 in Fig. 3. I may and desirably do continue theknitting upon the same machine down to some suitable point, such asindicated at 28, and before reaching the point 28, I may and preferablydo effect by lateral transfer of stitches another lace formation such asindicated at 29. Desirably the entire portion of the fabric shown inFig. 3 is knitted with a thread which is heavier than the thread fromwhich the remainder of the stocking is knitted.

It now becomes necessary to transfer the fabric thus far knitted, andone type of which is shown in Fig. 3, to the second knitting machine tocomplete the knitting of the stocking, or at least to continue theknitting down to the foot portion of the stocking. Therefore, inaccordance with my invention, I proceed as follows:

When the knitting is continued down to the desired point, as, forexample, down to the point 28, Fig. 3, a dipping action is automaticallyeffected, so that thereby the incomplete blank of Fig. 3, which as anentirety is designated at 30, is instantly, by said dipping action,taken off the knitting needles 2 by and onto the transfer points 21 ofthe transfer bar 20. No additional material is knitted to be laterraveled back as described in connection with previous processes. The bar20, which is indicated in Fig. 3 as now impaled by its points on thelast course of the fabric blank 30, is removed from the machine shown inFigs. 1 and 3, and is carried directly over to the second machine withthe fabric portion or blank 30 impaled on the points thereof. Theimpaled stitches of the fabric portion 30 are then transferred exactlyonto the needles of the second machine, and from this point on theknitting of the stocking is the same as heretofore practised.

It will be understood that by my invention there is not only effected asaving in material, inasmuch as it is not necessary to ravel back anyportion of the fabric that is transferred, but I also effect a verysubstantial saving of time.

The means for creating the lace top is indicated in Fig. 1 in which isshown the lace bar 31 for one unit or section, said lace bar beingrepresented as turned back out of action. Each lace bar of the machineis provided with brackets 32 which are mounted upon the lace rod 33. Itwill be understood that after the work is transferred from the firstmachine onto the transfer bar 20, such transfer bar is removed, in orderthat the work may be transferred ultimately onto the second machine.While such transfer work is going on the transfer-bar brackets areraised up out of the way in order to allow the knitter to bring the lacebar 31 down into action and start another welt having lace formationtherein.

Having thus described one embodiment of means for practising myinvention and the best method known to me for effecting the same, it isto be understood'that although specific terms are employed, they areused in a generic and descriptive sense and not for purposes oflimitation, the scope of the invention being set forth in the followingclaims.

1. In a full-fashioned knitting machine, a bar or rod adapted toparticipate in the dipping movement, bracket means secured to said rodor bar, studs 16 upon .said bracketmeans, and a transfer bar adaptedto.be readily positioned on said "studs for quick removal.

2. In a full-fashioned knitting machine, a bar or rod adapted toparticipate in the dipping movement, bracket means secured to said rodor bar, studs 16 upon said bracket means, and a transfer bar adapted tobe readily positioned upon said studs for clip means 22 temporarily tomaintain said bar upon said studs. I

3. In a full-fashioned knitting machine, a bar or rod adapted toparticipate in the dipping movement, bracket means secured upon said rodor bar, projections extending from said bracket upon which a transferbar may be readily and temporarily hung. in combination with atransquick removal, and spring fer bar having openings to receive saidprojections, and means to insure the temporary holding of said transferbar upon said projections.

4. In a full-fashioned knitting machine, a rod or bar adapted toparticipate in the dipping movement; bracket means secured to said rodor bar; and a transfer bar adapted to be readily positioned upon saidbracket means for quick removal; one of said parts (namely, the bracketmeans and. the transfer bar), having projections, and the other of saidparts having openings to receive said projections, whereby the readypositioning for quick removal is obtained.

5. In a full-fashioned knitting machine, a rod or bar adapted toparticipate in the dippin movement; bracket means secured to said rod orbar; a transfer bar adapted to be readily positioned upon said bracketmeans for quick removal; one of said parts (namely, the bracket meansand the transfer bar), having projections, and the other of said partshaving openings to receive said projections and means to insure thetemporary holding of said transfer bar upon said projections, wherebythe ready positioning forquick removal is obtained. MORRIS E. MAGN'IER.

